Located in the outskirts, the original building was a typical example of the mass-produced warehouses from the 70´s found in many suburban industrial areas of the world.

The original building was perceived as having little historic, cultural and architectural value. Instead of demolition, the focus of the project was on how to take this introverted building and transform it with a very limited budget?

Despite the generic appearance, these typologies often contain an impressive interior space and the idea was to open up the introverted building and expose it to the outside world. By removing the walls at both ends of the building and placing all the office and workshop spaces on one side and the skating on the other, the interiors are kept as free as possible. The existing concrete facade is wrapped in a new translucent skin that gives the appearance of a light and welcoming building, changing from day to night.

The building is filled with functions aimed to meet the increasing demand for self-organized alternatives to the established sports and cultural activities, supporting the client mission to attract local youth and create lasting social change through sports and culture, enabling integration and empowerment in their lives.

The new activities include parkour, skate, bouldering, basketball, trial as well workshops for music, art, wood and metal, DJ, an animation studio, fab lab. Social spaces are distributed and strategically interwoven in-between these activities, based on the notion that proximity fosters participation.

With many vacated industrial sites being incorporated in urban expansion, this approach has the potential to be scaled and replicated.

Credits: Jonathan Linde, Thomas Andersen A/S, BOGL, Nørlum, Rambøll, Bjørn Lisager, Luke Jouppi, Lars Pedersen